Class gives women defense strategies, added confidence

Thursday

Mar 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 27, 2008 at 11:18 AM

Teresa Napier, abused as a child, took years to be ready -- mentally and physically -- to stand up for herself. Tonya Pruett thought twice about taking a self-defense class, concerned that she might be inviting bad energy into her life. Nancy Kater, just out of college, never threw a punch in her life, but was eager to learn. Each of these women came to the Rape Aggression Defense class by a different path, but they all have embraced it as one thing: empowering.

Jennifer Davis

Teresa Napier, abused as a child, took years to be ready -- mentally and physically -- to stand up for herself.

Tonya Pruett thought twice about taking a self-defense class, concerned that she might be inviting bad energy into her life.

Nancy Kater, just out of college, never threw a punch in her life, but was eager to learn.

Each of these women came to the Rape Aggression Defense class by a different path, but they all have embraced it as one thing: empowering.

"I wouldn't have been ready before," says Napier, 41, who took the class for the first time last April. Now, she comes back every time it's offered to practice her technique. "I want it to be automatic. I don't want to have to think about it."

The class -- free to all women, and only women -- is offered every other month at the Center for Prevention of Abuse. The next session begins April 9.

Larry Nadeau, a former U.S. Marine and police officer, created RAD, a nationwide program that begins with prevention and avoidance techniques and progresses to hands-on defense tactics.

"Risk reduction is 90 percent of self-defense," says Nancee Brown, a RAD instructor for the past six years who also serves as the legal/medical advocacy coordinator for sexual assault services for the center. Attackers "look for vulnerability and availability, and we're going to be too much work."

In helping sexual assault victims for the past 16 years, Brown has noticed "a lot more reporting of sexual assaults. We're now raising a generation who thinks it's OK to tell, but it's still very tough because society still judges."

A dangerous world

From July 2003 to October 2004, Larry Bright, a former concrete worker, admitted to killing eight women. He targeted black women involved in drugs or prostitution, using their fringe and dangerous lifestyles to hide his crimes. His victims were either dumped along rural roads or burned to ash and bone in his backyard just outside Peoria city limits.

Bright is now serving a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole.

More recently, Monterius Hinkle is alleged to have attacked five young girls on Peoria's South Side over a 13-month span. He's currently in Peoria County Jail with sexual assault charges pending.

Both men's victims were strangers to them, but, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, 75 percent of victims know their attackers, and more than half of all rapes and sexual assaults occur within a mile of the victim's home. Forty-five percent of all sexual assault victims are younger than 12 years old.

Brown will teach RAD to girls as young as 11, but anyone up to age 16 must take it with a parent. If you are 17, you need your parent's written consent.

"There is a RAD for men, but not in this area," Brown adds.

Standing strong

Jena Taylor, who took the class with her best friend, Nancy Kater, has never been attacked, never really been in a scary situation unless you count the drunken frat boys who hung on her in college bars.

"They'd come up and put their arms around me. They weren't necessarily trying to hurt me and just because they were drunk, I felt ... I don't know. Looking back, I did not feel comfortable with that. And now I know how to handle that.

"I feel so much more prepared," says Taylor, a first-grade teacher. "It was very empowering. I was not an athlete growing up. I never thought I had the strength to do much, but Bob (the practice dummy) has 200 pounds of sand in his base and, punching him, I could make him come off the ground. It makes me feel very strong."

Back in college, Kater and Taylor's sorority brought in a self-defense coach, "but this RAD class gave us so much more," says Kater, an intern at the Family Justice Center who works with domestic violence victims.

"I've never thrown a punch in my life. I'm lucky enough that I've never been in a bad situation, but I know a lot of women aren't so lucky. We're in a different world than our parents were."

Pruett, a massage therapist who volunteers at the center, thought twice about taking the class even though Brown, the instructor, is a friend.

"I was concerned about bringing that energy into my life, but it's quite the opposite. I am more confident. I am doing safer things, I think," said Pruett, who finds herself constantly practicing what she's learned. "The people who are apprehensive about taking it are probably the ones who need to take it."

Olga Becker, director of administration at the center, is a domestic violence survivor who has spent the past two decades helping empower women.

"I've been doing this work for over 20 years, and I learned several fundamental things I did not know about not acting like a victim. It was very inspiring and empowering. It made me feel, if the situation arose, that I would not be totally vulnerable."

Napier, who is still dealing with the trauma of her childhood abuse, says RAD is "so simple, it's scary."

"This teaches not only self-defense but self-confidence. It teaches you to do right by yourself. I've learned to put the responsibility where it belongs instead of carrying it myself."

Brown doesn't want specific defensive moves described -- "Why tip off the bad guys?" -- but she says they are ones that anyone can do.

"My oldest (student) so far was 72, and she could do the techniques.

"We definitely suggest and encourage that people take the class more than once. It's like a foreign language. You're not going to be fluent after the first exposure."